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Nuclear power plant technicians, senior military officers, FBI contractors and an employee of “a highly-secretive Department of Defense agency” with a Top Secret clearance. Those are just a few of the more than 100 people with sensitive military and government connections that law enforcement is tracking because they are linked to “outlaw motorcycle gangs.”

A year before the deadly Texas shootout that killed nine people on May 17, a lengthy report by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives detailed the involvement of U.S. military personnel and government employees in outlaw motorcycle gangs, or OMGs. A copy of the report was obtained by The Intercept.

The report lays out, in almost obsessive detail, the extent to which OMG members are represented in nearly every part of the military, and in federal and local government, from police and fire departments to state utility agencies. Specific examples from the report include dozens of Defense Department contractors with Secret or Top Secret clearances; multiple FBI contractors; radiological technicians with security clearances; U.S. Department of Homeland Security employees; Army, Navy and Air Force active-duty personnel, including from the special operations force community; and police officers.

If this is true. Fuck them and their ‘careers’ they can go from wanna-be-Hells-Belles, to full time scum.

The 1-foot long by 8-inch tall (30 by 20 cm) engine was built at GE Aviation’s Additive Development Center outside Cincinnati as a side project. The result of several years’ work, the purpose was to test the printing technology. It’s not the first 3D-printed jet engine, but it has been fired and revved up to 33,000 RPM.
GE says that the simplified design was necessary because building anything like a conventional commercial engine is beyond the present technology’s state of the art. The team therefore chose a design created for remote control model planes, which was modified for Direct Laser Metal Melting (DLMM) printing

Engineers at the University of Sheffield’s Advanced Manufacturing Research Center (AMRC), however, have taken things a step farther. They’ve made a 3D-printed UAV airframe that’s designed to minimize the amount of material needed in its construction, and that can be printed and in the air within a single day.

The Extreme Accuracy Tasked Ordnance (EXACTO) program, run by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, is looking to increase the accuracy of difficult, long-distance shots with bullets that can change direction in flight and seek out their targets.
Last year, DARPA and developer Teledyne Scientific & Imaging demonstrated the ability to hit a target that was offset from where the rifle was aimed. In the recent live-fire tests conducted in February, shown in the video above, researchers showed they could hit targets that were moving, even accelerating.
The shots were fired from a standard rifle at sniper ranges using .50-caliber bullets. In the tests, an experienced shooter hit moving and evading targets repeatedly, DARPA said. And for the first time, a novice shooter hit a moving target.

Wilson has tried to keep on the right side of ITAR law. He’s asked them in at least 10 separate official requests to tell him if his original Liberator plans actually fall under its jurisdiction. He’s also inquired if if his current main project, the “Ghost Gunner,” a home CNC mill which allows individuals to make metal AR-15 lower receivers at home without serial numbers, falls under ITAR. (Such a request is known as a “commodity jurisdiction” request.)

Their answer, if I’m reading the suit correctly, is that the hardware does not but that software does. The suit details at length a confusing series of bureaucratic buck-passing from the ITAR people that makes it very hard for Wilson and Defense Distributed to know whether their planned activities will bring criminal punishment down on them.

Wilson said in a phone interview this morning that he’s trying to get all Ghost Gunner customers to affirm that they are U.S. citizens, since he fears if he sells one to a non-citizen (which could constitute “export”) he just might run afoul of ITAR.

How? Simple. Give the police near-total immunity for their behavior as “public servants,” instruct them to bring in money by just about any means necessary, rely on the conservatives to support almost any excess, enjoy the blessing of the state and federal courts, and provide them with enough weapons — not just guns, but tasers, nightsticks, huge flashlights, etc. — to take down and out anyone who resists. We can sort out guilt or innocence later, possibly posthumously. Joseph K. had a better chance at justice in Frank Kafka’s The Trial.

UNITED NATIONS — Libya urged the UN Security Council on Wednesday to approve a request for military purchases as it struggles to combat Islamic State extremists and protect its oil fields.
The internationally-recognized government, one of two bodies that claims to rule troubled Libya, has asked the council’s sanctions committee to grant an exemption to an arms embargo and allow it to beef up its air force.
“The leadership of the Libyan army has submitted specific requests for exemptions from the arms embargo to the sanctions committee,” Libyan Ambassador Ibrahim Dabbashi told the 15-member council.

Golsteyn was later investigated for an undisclosed violation of the military’s rules of engagement in combat — a violation related to the killing of a known enemy bombmaker, according to officials familiar with the case. The investigation closed in 2014 without Golsteyn’s being charged with a crime, but Army Secretary John M. McHugh made the rare decision to strip him of both awards anyway.

Last month, the government issued a policy change to allow law enforcement officials to open fire and use deadly force to control protests. At the time, human rights groups said the new regulation was dangerously vague, but Saab defended it. Attorney General Luisa Ortega Diaz said the state would investigate whether the new policy had played a part in the boy’s death.

In the video, released late Saturday, the extremist group again said its September 2013 attack on the Westgate Mall in Nairobi, Kenya, was in reprisal for Kenyan military involvement in Somalia. Sixty-seven people died in the attack. The video, using footage from major news organizations, showed the assault on the mall.
The masked narrator of the 76-minute video warned of more attacks in Kenya and concluded by calling on Muslims to attack shopping malls, specifically mentioning the Mall of America in Minnesota, the West Edmonton Mall in Canada and the Westfield mall in Stratford, England.

This is a bit of history from 2009. Still relevant to today’s news in the US.

The MSM feeds a lot of stories about bad decisions bad police and it makes it look like a huge problem. [Remember, The Summer of Shark Attacks, in 2001? Or that YOU are probably going to get measles, tomorrow!]

Officer Decker was white, the two murderers were black.

The majority of police shootings are more along the line of this:

On March 19, 2009, at 12:30am, Norfolk Police Officer Victor E. Decker was in uniform on routine, single bicycle patrol in Downtown Norfolk when he heard gunshots. As he neared the corner of Plume Street and Bank Street in response to the gunshots, he observed two men running toward him. When Officer Decker saw a black, semi-
automatic weapon in the hand of one of the men, he immediately jumped off of his bicycle and yelled at the men to get down and drop the gun. One man complied with the instructions, but the other man, with the gun in his hand, raised his arm and fired
the gun at Officer Decker. Once the man’s gun fired, Officer Decker returned fire with his service weapon. The man was struck, fatally wounded. Officer Decker then approached the men, secured them, and called for assistance.

The initial gunshots heard by Officer Decker were the result of a robbery and fatal shooting of a man carried out by the two men. The victim, unknown to the suspects, was simply sitting in his car when they approached him and attempted to rob him. The man was then fatally shot by one of the men.

As seen in a video posted to social media, the officer approaches the teens with his gun drawn shouting “don’t fucking move.” An off-screen witness, presumably holding the camera recording the incident can be heard saying, “this group of guys was having a snowball fight and now the cop has a gun on them.”

“He’s a big mama’s boy, you know. His best friend is his kitty cat. There’s no way he could have carried out any kind of terrorist plot,” Cornell’s father said. “He didn’t even drive; he didn’t have a car.”

He had recently converted to Islam, which gave him inner peace, John Cornell said. ‘Heck no, there’s no way my son was involved with ISIS’

“His best friend is his kitty cat.”

Uh… John? You didn’t raise the sharpest knife in the drawer. He is twenty years old and the owner of a gun shop allowed him to purchase two AR-15’s. (FBI sting)

But with key patents running out this year, new printers that use metal, wood and fabric are set to become much more widely available — putting the engineering world on the cusp of major historical change.
The billion-dollar defence industry is at the bleeding edge of this innovation, with the US military already investing heavily in efforts to print uniforms, synthetic skin to treat battlewounds, and even food, said Alex Chausovsky, an analyst at IHS Technology.
Scientists at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology have already invented “4D printing” — creating materials that change when they come into contact with elements such as water.

Of course, the impact from a round is still going to do some damage, and comes well within the range of force that can cause a serious concussion. When compared to the damage caused by an unimpeded bullet, however, it could prove to be a worthwhile investment.
The hat starts with a base model in three different sizes. From there, the team modifies it to include a BulletSafe ballistic pad in the front two panels of the six-panel hat. The team expects that it can stop frontal impacts from handguns that use 9-mm, .40 and .38 caliber rounds.

It will be hard for him to persuade the Republican-controlled General Assembly to give up any ground on Second Amendment issues, especially as some fend off challenges from the right. But the governor is betting that the mass shootings at Sandy Hook and at Virginia Tech University in 2007 make it politically toxic for Republicans in more moderate districts to oppose the measures.
“Our Commonwealth and our nation have seen too many tragedies as a result of dangerous weapons getting into the hands of the wrong people,” McAuliffe said in the release. “These common-sense proposals will keep guns out of the hands of criminals.”

And nothing–NOTHING in these proposed laws will keep weapons from getting into the hands of criminals.

While your at it Ter, why don’t you tell the criminals not to crime. That will help about as much as these proposals.

When University of Texas police responded to a bomb threat in 2012, they arrived in a Humvee. It’s one of three large military vehicles the university’s police system has acquired from the Department of Defense. They recently received a mine-resistant vehicle, which was designed to withstand roadside bombs on the battlefields in Iraq and Afghanistan.
“That vehicle will be used solely in response to an active shooter or armed intruder events,” Heidingsfield said. “Or perhaps in anticipation of a major natural catastrophic event.”

We’re expecting major combat operations, from our northern border, over the next 30 to 60 days. We’ve got our Humvees and MRAP up and running in case the insurgents start in with flying keg stands but if they begin throwing the bomb we’ll want the AH-64 to provide suppressing fire while we smoke those fuckin’ Okies with some 2000 pound LGBs from our University of Texas Schools Police Freedom F-16s.

When asked by CBS news about having surplus military hardware, Director of Police Michael Heidingsfield said:

“I am required to protect and serve the University of Texas System. I ought to employ and have in my repertoire every possible tool. ….. but If I don’t have it and we need it, I’ve not made the right decision.”

It’s essential that we base these discussions on good data and sound presumptions. Police officers are human and fallible, just like the rest of us. How they behave and react in the aggregate is a product of the policies, procedures and guidelines set by police leadership, elected officials and ultimately the public. Here are five common misconceptions about policing today:

This past week, on This American Life, the first 20 minutes or so are the incredible story of just how screwed up the ATF continues to be (the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms). Much of this has been reported on over the past year and a half by reporters in Milwaukee (and investigated by Congress), but it’s absolutely worth listening to the details — which you can do over on the This American Life page The story is all kinds of stunning, including the insane fact that most of the details came out, and the reporters only began their investigation, because some undercover ATF agents in Milwaukee had trashed the property they were renting, and refused to pay the rent or damages to the landlord — even threatening the landlord, claiming he was harassing federal agents by asking for the rent:

John Diedrich: I get a call. And it was from a landlord, a guy named Dave Salkin. And Dave Salkin owns this place that he, unbeknownst to him, rented to the ATF. Didn’t know who they were, they were undercover agents. And they had trashed his place, and they were behind on rent. They had threatened him. And I said, where are you, I’m coming right now.

Ira Glass: While they were undercover, agents from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives basically ripped up his place. Salkin said at the time that they owed $15,000 in damages and back rent. Later he said it was more. When he tried to collect, they didn’t pay up. In fact, an ATF lawyer warned him that if he kept asking for the money, it could be seen as harassing federal agents.

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The ATF’s M.O. was to open some sort of store, be it a pawn shop or a tattoo parlor, in a poor neighborhood and then try to bait the locals into committing drug or gun crimes. If some of those locals were handicapped, hey — that just makes reaching the monthly quota of guilty pleas and convictions easier.

"The welfare of humanity is always the alibi of tyrants." - Albert Camus

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